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Recent local reviews of Sonnet 43 brewery Tap house the Lambton Worm has seen the site being rated 10/10 by local Newspaper the Sunderland Echo. Many happy regular Diners/Drinkers have quickly taking to social media to share their congratuations and agreement of the recent review.

Sonnet 43 are very proud of the fantastic job The Lambton Worm team do in serving great food and sonnet 43 beers, keeping local produce, quality food, top service and customers at its heart, lets hope this site continues to thrive for many years to come.

We are getting really excited at the continued strong feedback and praise our how do I love thee . . . let me count the beers range is receiving.

we are delighted that the special limited edition range of beers are representing what we hoped in a range of exciting difrent experimental style of beers. some top highlights so far have included, A champagne beer, A blackberry witbier, cream ale, smoked porter, joe stout, passion fruit beer and many more.

Although many happy sonnet drinkers have commented “you wont be able to top that last one, it was a belter” it feels that things are going from strength to strength with the beers brewed so far in 2015 of this range receiving top feedback regularly from landlords, pubs, bars and drinkers alike of how much they have enjoyed our, liquorice root stout, irish red ale and spring IPA.

although we are just hitting the half way point of this range of beers with our aim being to reach #43 in total we are already excited about possibly have a 12 month period of revisiting and re brewing some of the 12 top greatest hits of the range.

keep the feed back coming folks to make sure that one of you favourites specials are in the running to be on our lest of top limited edition specials.

Big congrats to our very own Thomas Bainbridge who recently completed his first year qualification in “introduction to brewing”. We gave Tom bags of malt, he gave us bags of commitment, we gave him buckets of hops, he gave us buckets of enthusiasm, tom is now studying to achieve his “certificate in brewing”, through the institution of brewing and distilling with an emphasis on craft beer, expect to see some great beers from tom in the future.

Sonnet 43 Brew House are delighted to announce that after much renovation, the former R Bar at the Roker Hotel has become Poetic License, a distillery bar specialising in spirits, craft beers and cocktails.

Poetic License will proudly stock four Sonnet 43 beers on a regular basis, along side a rotating selection of eight guest beers from regional, national & international breweries

Poetic License Distillery Bar is something totally different for, not only the area of Sunderland, but the whole of the North of England. To have a bar using its very own hand-crafted spirits & craft beers is something that has never been done before, We wanted to breathe some much-needed life back into the seafront scene.

We’ve had a few queries with regards to the bar’s name. We wanted to do something different, and focus more upon the ethos of the bar and the atmosphere we wanted to create inside.

The definition of Poetic License means ‘to be at liberty to deviate from conventional rules In the traditional English spelling of the phrase, License is spelled with a ‘c’. However when spelled with ‘s’ is a verb, meaning ‘to give permission to’. So in our case, ‘Poetic License’ is the permission we grant you to be at liberty to deviate from conventional rules, be yourself and most of all enjoy yourself whilst in our bar.

We’re extremely pleased to announce Sonnet 43 Brew House is a finalist in the Best Microbrewing Pub Company category of The Publican Awards 2014.

These national annual awards recognise achievement within the pub industry with 18 categories covering all aspects of running pub establishments, from small operations to very large pub companies.

The criteria for our category are brewing less than 10,000 barrels a year and having at least one quality, beer-focused pub. The rigorous judging for the awards consisted of 3 stages, first being the paper application and the second, site visits. In our case, these were carried out by renowned beer writer, Pete Brown, who visited all our pubs and sampled the ales & food to assess our entry. This was followed by mystery visits to further assess the application with the final stage involving the brewery’s owner, Mark Hird, being interviewed by a judging panel of industry experts in London.

The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony, hosted by Liverpudlian comedian, John Bishop, on Tuesday 25 March at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, which we’re very much looking forward to!

Last year’s winner was Ossett Brewery and, this year, we’re up against well-known, Leeds Brewery, and Brew House & Kitchen, based at the South Coast. Both are strong contenders. For us still being a relatively new brewery, to be a finalist in itself is an achievement.

We are readying to re-open the pub that adjoins our brew house in Coxhoe as a brewery tap on Friday 22nd November, after extensive renovation work.

Formerly known as The Kicking Cuddy, now The Clarence Villa, the venue will comprise both a pub & restaurant, offering traditional British food with a modern twist made with quality ingredients from loc­al producers wherever possible. It will also, of course, feature our ales which are brewed just next door.

We were keen to stay true to local roots, as the brewery itself does with its own name, so the name-change is actually a return to the pub’s original name. First opened back in 1857, ‘The Clarence Villa’ was derived from the neighbouring Clarence Railway which was used for coal transportation and was named after the Duke of Clarence who later became King William IV.

We kept the pub closed for over 14 months to carry out the refurbishment including an extension to the rear of the property. This will be our third pub of 2013, our format of craft beers coupled with good honest food having proved extremely popular at our other taps The Lambton Worm, Chester le Street, and The White Lead, Hebburn.

Being our ‘home’ venue though, in 2014 we hope to develop the site to also incorporate a visitors’ centre, where guests will be able to explore the brewery aspect with tours and experiences. We hope it will become something of a tourist attraction for the area.

We are very grateful for the support we have received from the locals as we near the pub’s re-opening; this has been phenomenal and we’re thrilled people are embracing it. We are hoping The Clarence Villa will also prove popular throughout the North East, being easily accessible from the A1.

Previously Dougie’s Tavern, Hebburn, the venue will be re-opening on Friday 4th October 2013 after months of renovation work and planning.

The pub will take a similar form to Sonnet 43’s first brew pub The Lambton Worm, Chester le Street, which has proved a huge success recently winning best cask beer pub in Scotland, North East & Yorkshire in the BT Sport Great British Pub Awards 2013. It will sell all the Sonnet 43 beers, as well as a selection of guest ales, and food-wise will serve traditional British fare with a modern interpretation using local food produce.

In keeping with our ethos of drawing on local history, as both Sonnet 43 & the Lambton Worm do, we chose a name relevant to the area. ‘The White Lead’ comes from original industrial heritage; though originally it was a Victorian pub called The Royal Hotel, it was affectionately known by people in Jarrow and Hebburn from the late 1800s onwards as The White Lead, as many of the properties in the area were covered with white powder from the local lead manufacturing plant. So we’ve taken the old epithet and christened it that officially.

Though property had become very rundown and required a lot of work to get it back up to code, we’re pleased to say the pub is now looking great! We’re hopeful it’ll be a great addition to the South Tyneside area.

This is number two of three planned brew pubs for 2013, the next in-line being the Kicking Cuddy pub which the brew house adjoins. And work has also begun at this site! We expect it to open for later in 2013.

We’re celebrating the news that our American Pale Ale & Bourbon Milk Stout have wowed judges in Great Taste 2013 by being awarded a 2 star and 1 star respectively.

Great Taste is the world’s largest and most rigorous food awards scheme. It’s simply about taste, no branding or packaging, involving over 400 judges and thousands of hours of blind tasting. The judges were presented with our beer in a glass, no bottle or label, and they tasted, conferred and re-tasted before making the decision to award the beers stars. In total more than 12 judges tasted and commented on the beers.

American Pale Ale was commended by the judges for its hop flavour that ‘really delivers’ whilst the Bourbon Milk stout was highly praised for its ‘lovely nose’, comprising chocolate, oak & liquorice aromas.

We entered after only a few months of brewing as we were confident our beers are exceptionally flavoursome and individual – thankfully the judges agreed with us! Out of almost 10,000 products entered into Great Taste 2013 just 645 have been awarded 2-star and around a quarter gained 1-star meaning that Sonnet 43 are amongst a mere handful of producers with this coveted recognition. The Great Taste stars are the mark of a quality product and we’re thrilled the beers have received this accolade!

Our now award-winning beers are available to buy online via the online shop.

Our latest limited edition beer, Insular Art, is the official beer for the Lindisfarne Gospels Durham.

The beer began life as a mere 2 cask brew for entry into battle of the beers at Bishop Auckland Food Festival’s Beer & Wine Festival, in which the ale triumphed over some other very established & respected local breweries after it won over both the public and a judging panel, featuring celebrity chefs The Fabulous Baker Brothers. Being the winner, the brew gained the honour of the Lindisfarne Gospels Durham’s official while they are exhibited in the city this Summer.

While the name ‘Insular Art’ refers to the elaborate style of the Lindisfarne Gospels, which is a masterpiece of medieval book painting, from receiving the competition brief the beer we wanted he beer need to recreate key flavours of herbs and honey of the famous drink synonymous with the holy island Lindisfarne Mead. It uses herbal hops and honey within the fermentation and herbal, spice & honey notes really shine through.

Around 50,000 people have now been to visit the Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham but as it’s only around until September – as is Insular Art – you’ll need to get in there quick.

Insular Art is now available in 9 gallon cask & 500ml bottle & as a commemorative gift pack. Click here to buy online. Or to visit the gospels click here.